Welcome to Patricia Youngquist, The Last Leaf Gardener's blog. I'm an author, artist, and urban gardener living in NYC. My book, "Words In Our Beak Volume One," set in my rooftop garden is now in softcover format! It's a story told by Cam, the female cardinal, pictured above. For info click on the first icon in my blog's sidebar (L). It's also in digital format. Click on the second sidebar icon (L) for details. AND I have a website! Click on the third icon in that sidebar to visit it.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

My Winter Storm Follow-UP is for the birds!

Yesterday was the day after the snow storm in NYC. I got up very early with the intention of making sure the bird feeders, as well as the bird saucers, that I have placed in my rooftop garden, were not covered with snow, and, that they had food in them.

I was especially on the look out to see if the American Robin, as well as the Northern mockingbird, who had dined here during the blizzard, returned. I was fairly sure that the European starlings, sparrows, house finches, blue jays, dark-eyed juncoes, and mourning doves, who had also visited my place during the storm, made it through the night; but I was not as confident about the robin's or the mockingbird's ability to survive the cold temperatures. Yet I was hopeful that they were able to do so. I replenished their saucers, and made sure that there were still suet cakes in the bird feeders. I also had my camera ready to take their pictures.

I was concentrating on my anticipation of their arrival, when I felt as if someone was watching me. I went to the window, and did not see anyone, or any creature; including European starlings, sparrows, house finches, blue jays, dark-eyed juncoes, or mourning doves; nor did I see the robin or the mockingbird; but I felt an intense stare upon me.

It was at that point when I noticed an unmistakable splash of vibrant red within the Ailanthus Trees (which are in the courtyard of the building where I live). Instantly I knew that the red had to belong to a cardinal! My camera's long lens confirmed my guess, and I took the photograph that is atop this blog entry, and as you can see, he did appear to be staring my way.

Thankfully I was able to take a few photos of him, besides the image atop this entry, a couple more can be seen directly below, and, as you can see he is very puffed up in an effort to withstand the bitter cold.

It has been quite some time since I've seen a cardinal in my immediate vicinity, although I have seen them in Central Park. As I mentioned in a recent post here on Blogger, the nearby construction has deterred cardinals from coming here, but I had gotten a quick glimpse of one in my garden, a little over a week ago. Unfortunately his stay was for such a brief moment that I missed a chance to get a photo-op of the brilliant red fellow!

In any event, when a chaplain that I am well aquatinted with, heard about that quick visit from the cardinal which I just spoke of, he told me that the presence of a cardinal at this time could be a sign.

that I wrote with Cam, is on the brink of being reproduced. I've hit a few snags with each of the production companies, but they are ones that can be remedied, in a relatively short amount of time — HOPEFULLY.

Meanwhile, I'm very grateful to report that the robin and the mocking bird weathered the bitter cold night after the storm, and came to nosh in my garden during the afternoon hours (as seen below),